topic Thank You in State tax filing

incorrect NYS pension exclusion

barbpaul — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 19:02:05 GMT

2019 tax year, State University of NY pension in NYS return. Entered specific amount to be excluded in Governmental Pension Exclusion input. That specific amount is over $20,000. Pension Deduction Summary page then shows that specific amount on the line for 'New York deduction for government pensions' *and* $20,000 on the line 'New York deduction for other pensions'. Two deductions for the same pension entry? The total deduction ends up being almost 2X of the pension amount itself!

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

BillM223 — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 19:48:55 GMT

*The Normal Case*

When you enter that you are a New York state resident, after you enter your 1099-R for your pension, there will be a series of screens. One screen will ask you to Select Your State.

When you select New York, the next screen will ask "Where is this distribution from?"

This will give you the opportunity to select the source of the pension. If you have a pension that qualifies for exclusion in New York, it will be removed from your New York return.

*Your Case*

Did you also enter the $20,000 as a subtraction or exclusion while inside the New York interview itself? If so, you should go back and remove it. The data entry immediately after the 1099-R is normally all you need to do.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

Justbrenda69 — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:25:45 GMT

I'm in the same situation. NYS return automatically deducts the $20,000. I never entered it manually. I did select that the pension is from NYS education on the federal return. I can't seem to find how to remove the $20,000. I'm going over this return many times, and the worksheets, but can't find what is incorrect. It all looks correct to me.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

jny — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:11:19 GMT

I have the exact same problem and can not figure out how to remedy it. I only entered my NYS pension. I did not enter a $20,000 exclusion and I can't get rid of it

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

jny — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:12:29 GMT

I have the exact same problem and can not figure out how to remedy it. I only entered my NYS pension. I did not enter a $20,000 exclusion and I can't get rid of it

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

EmayPA — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 04:32:46 GMT

SAME problem here. It knows correctly that the pensions are not taxable by NYS, but INSISTS on adding in the $20k exclusion THAT DOES NOT APPLY. Fix this, Intuit. It tells me that I have to fix it in my Federal return, where it is already correct.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

EmayPA — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 04:34:06 GMT

NOT SOLVED. Sources are correct, pensions rightly noted that they are exempt, yet still deducting another $20k. Fix it.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

georgenjg — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 19:41:42 GMT

When I enter my Union pension info I asked questions about my IRA account not my Union pension

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

Mamselle — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 03:45:52 GMT

Same problem for me. I filed for an extension hoping somebody (Turbo Tax, are you listening?) will fix this.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

ned_head1 — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 02:37:15 GMT

This is still not fixed and Intuit customer service does not pick up the phone or I get disconnected.

I think I am going to have to find a different tax prep software because they obviously do not get it.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

Critter-3 — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 03:00:51 GMT

It was never broken ... you must enter this in the federal 1099-R entry section only properly. Read the approved answer in this thread.

If you still need help contact support on Monday :

To call TurboTax customer support

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899263-what-is-the-turbotax-phone-number

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

ned_head1 — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:32:43 GMT

After speaking with several people at Intuit: This is a KNOWN bug and they hope to have it fixed for the 2020 version.

There is no fix for 2019 as of 12/2020 in spite of what was previously posted

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

JoeHay-- — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 17:16:26 GMT

As of January 1, 2020, for TurboTax 2020, I have the same problem where the 20k exclusion is deducted when it should not be deducted for New York State Teachers Retirement System.

Pension Deduction Summary

We automatically calculated your New York pension deductions.

Joe Jane

Total federal taxable non-disability pensions and IRA $120,000 $48,000

distributions

New York deduction for government pensions $0 $48,000

New York deduction for railroad retirement $0 $0

New York deduction for other pensions $20,000 $20,000 <-- should be 0

Total taxable pensions and IRA distributions $100,000 -$20,000

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

RMB NY — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:28:13 GMT

This bug is still in the tool it has not been resolved.

I am trying to prepare for 2020. My NYS & Local governmental pension payments are correctly being excluded from taxable income for NY State. However, as stated in this thread, the TurboTax tool is still applying an additional $20,000 Pension and Annuity Exclusion in NYS tax application -- and it shouldn't be. This is not a Tax Regulation or CPA question it is clearly a glitch in the software. I spoke to customer service and they said they are aware that this bug exists, they have no timeframe for fixing it.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

Mamselle — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 05:30:29 GMT

I had the same problem, but (back in August 2019) I was fortunate enough to talk with someone at TurboTax who acknowledged the problem and suggested a work-around. Looking at these recent posts, I see that not only has the problem not been solved but the work-around isn't generally known to TurboTax support.

The work-around I used was to indicate that my NYS pension was a pension from the US Government. (I know it's not, but stick with me.) The "US Government pension" was then treated the same as a NYS pension should have been. There was no incorrect extra $20,000 deduction for another pension I don't have and my pension was correctly listed as a deduction on my NYS State tax return.

Problem solved--at least for me.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

JoeHay-- — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:41:14 GMT

Good for me this is now working. Bad for the forum I do not know what fixed it. There were automatic updates applied around January 15, 2021 I hade previously tried deleting and reentering the New York State 1099-R and deleting and recreating the entire tax return. I assumed that one of the automatic fixes fixed the problem. If it is still not working for some this must be a difficult bug to track and fix. Hoping for myself that this remains fixed until I file later this year.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

RMB NY — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 14:56:10 GMT

Thanks for the comment.

It is unfortunate that Intuit applications people and tech support have not fixed the bug (which was identified last year) , or at a minimum, provided a job aide or guidance to their customer service personnel to help users. Finding a clunky workaround is fine, but at the price that Intuit charges for the TurboTax software I think we consumers deserve better. This was my first time having to enter data for pension income for myself, and I recognized immediately that the tool was not calculating and applying the exclusions correctly (it only took a few mouse clicks to the NYS Tax & Finance reference material to confirm that).

Adding to the annoyance, I was told that I might have to "upgrade" to their TurboTax LIVE (i.e.; pay more $) for the privilege of having my call responded to by someone with more experience and expertise. That would be bogus as I wasn't seeking "tax advice" I was just trying to point out/resolve an obvious glitch in the software. I was told to call back in a few weeks to see if they decided do do anything to resolve the bug.

The problem is obviously in the forced-choice selections in the Federal income pages as they pertain to pension and annuity exclusions for NYS government retirees, and obviously the error gets carried forward in to NYS income tax package. Bottom line they should just fix the bug or at least give us a timeframe for correcting it. I've been a loyal user of TurboTax for many years, and have used it for doing taxes of other people in my family and recommend it to everyone I know. This was a big turn- off for me and frankly very poor tech support and customer relations -- so I've decided to use someone else software this year. Sorry TurboTax.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

brenec — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:35:35 GMT

We are having the same problem - the only workaround appears to be to enter your NYS pension amount minus $20k in the State interview. The numbers come out right then, but the income is shown on incorrect lines in the IT-201 state return form.

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

LenaH — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 18:11:58 GMT

The adjustment to exclude $20,000 from your NYS income is done under Wage and retirement adjustments. This is found on the NYS screen Changes to Federal Income.

You can follow these steps in TurboTax to exclude $20,000 of your retirement income:

Open your return.
Click on State in the left hand column.
Click Edit next to your resident return.
Click Update or Start next to Adjustments to federal income on the screen You Just Finished Your New York Return.
Scroll down to Wage and retirement adjustments.
Click Start next to Received retirement income.
Continue to the screen Governmental Pension Exclusion.
Enter $20,000 for the question, Did you receive a pension or other distribution from a NY State or local government pension plan or federal government pension plan?
The next screen will show your pension deduction summary. Only $20,000 should be deducted from your pension.

Per NYS, taxpayers over age 59 1/2 can deduct up to $20,000 of certain federal, NY state or local government pensions and certain IRAs on their New York return. If married filing jointly, each spouse may deduct up to $20,000.

@brenec

Re: incorrect NYS pension exclusion

brenec — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 19:25:17 GMT

Thanks for responding! The issue at hand is that when the NYS pension income is entered in the Federal section (which is correct - let's say it is $45k as an example) and imported into the NY State portion of the software, it brings that number in as "Taxable NY State Income" and then subtracts it out again because NYS pension plans are not taxable at all in NYS. That's fine. The problem is that it also subtracts another $20k from the NYS income (because the pension income must again be entered when NYS pension income is requested in the State interview) which ends up deducting $65k from the overall NYS income instead of $45k which would be correct. When I checked the IT-201 form that was generated by this set of entries, one can see that the spurious $20k deduction shows up on a line that appears to apply to all non-NYS pensions. This is why I think the software is in error, and that having an entry in the NYS pension line (which triggers a subtraction of that same amount) also triggers the $20k deduction, resulting in a total deduction that is incorrect. I'm going to go back and carefully examine my entries based on your advice. If I can fix the problem, I'll post again.